KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Industry sources told SBC Americas that the DC Council could still pass a bill that legalizes DC iCasino and bans sweepstakes casinos before the end of 2026.
- The Council’s published calendar leaves three legislative meetings this year, and the bill still sits in the Committee on Human Services six months after its only hearing.
- Passage would add iGaming to a DC sports betting market that only opened to competition in 2024 after four years of a lottery-run monopoly.
Washington, D.C. might not wait until 2027 to legalize online casinos.
Multiple industry sources told SBC Americas that the DC Council could pass Councilmember Wendell Felder‘s Internet Gaming and Consumer Protection Act of 2026 before year’s end. The bill, B26-0656, would legalize DC iCasino gaming under the Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG) and outlaw the dual-currency sweepstakes casino model.
The window left to do so is small, with the current council period ending Jan. 2, 2027. The Council’s 2026 meeting schedule lists legislative meetings on Nov. 10, Dec. 1 and Dec. 15, plus Committee of the Whole meetings on Nov. 24 and Dec. 15.
It is not a clear path, however, as the Committee on Human Services would need to mark up the bill and move it to the full Council within the next few weeks. The committee has not acted since its nearly four-hour hearing on May 4. At that hearing, At-large Councilmember Christina Henderson said, “The jury is still out on this.”
The timing also comes during a political transition. DC voters choose a successor to Mayor Muriel Bowser Tuesday, and the ballot also includes the Council chair, two at-large seats and four ward seats, according to WTOP. A bill that misses the Dec. 15 meeting would need to be reintroduced to a partly new Council and a new mayor in 2027.
DC iGaming bill pairs with sweepstakes ban
Felder introduced the DC iCasino bill in April, noting in his introduction letter that DC residents wagered about $700m on unlicensed platforms in 2024.
“The policy question is whether the District will regulate it effectively or allow it to remain unregulated,” Felder wrote.
Here is what the DC iGaming bill would do:
- Allow an open market with no cap on DC iCasino operator licenses
- Require a $2m application fee for a five-year license and $500,000 for each five-year renewal (suppliers pay $50,000 to apply and $25,000 to renew)
- Create up to two brands per operator license, although the OLG can approve more
- Required that players must be 21 or older, which is higher than the District’s 18-year-old limit for sports betting
- Authorize live-dealer and peer-to-peer games
- Permits shared wallets with sports betting accounts with OLG approval
- Allow reciprocal agreements with other jurisdictions.
- Tax adjusted gross gaming revenue at 25%, with the first $500,000 going to the Department of Behavioral Health for problem gambling services and the rest going to the General Fund
Proposed sweeps rules in DC
The sweepstakes ban defines a dual-currency gaming product as any game or platform that uses two or more forms of currency, credits or tokens where at least one can be redeemed for cash or prizes.
The OLG can issue cease-and-desist orders, and the DC Attorney General can sue for injunctions, restitution and disgorgement. Each day of a violation counts as a separate violation, with fines that could reach $100,000 per violation and $500,000 for violations tied to the same pattern or practice.
DC sports betting’s unusual path to open market
DC legalized sports betting in 2019. The law made the DC Lottery both regulator and the only citywide mobile operator. Private retail sportsbooks at Capital One Arena, Nationals Park and Audi Field could offer mobile betting within a two-block radius of their venues.
The Lottery’s app, GambetDC, ran on a platform from Intralot, which won a no-bid $215m contract that created friction between Intralot and its local subcontractor. GambetDC launched in May 2020 and never came close to its promises. The app generated only $4.3m in tax revenue over its lifetime, compared with an expected $84m.
In March 2024, the OLG announced FanDuel would replace GambetDC as the lone citywide provider, operating as Intralot’s subcontractor. FanDuel went live in April 2024 and posted $5m in gross gaming revenue in its first 30 days, an 887% increase from the same period a year earlier.
DC opened sports betting market
The Council then used its fiscal 2025 budget to open the market, allowing venue operators to offer mobile betting citywide and creating licenses for mobile operators partnered with DC sports teams. That change took effect July 15, 2024.
BetMGM and Caesars launched citywide that summer, followed by DraftKings through DC United and Fanatics through the Washington Spirit. In September, bet365 became the sixth citywide sportsbook through a partnership with Monumental Sports & Entertainment.
DC sportsbooks handled $64.2m in July 2026, up 14.7% year over year, with $6.1m in gross gaming revenue.
Several of those same operators backed the DC iCasino bill in May. DraftKings called online casino a “natural next step” after the District modernized sports wagering, and BetMGM said it already invested more than $65m in DC.
Stop Predatory Gambling opposed the bill, and ARB Interactive, the owner of Publishers Clearing House, testified against the sweepstakes ban.
